🇸🇸 Republic of South Sudan
Visiting: Dangerous
The risks in South Sudan are serious. Same-sex relationships are criminalised, which places it 122nd for LGBT rights, so LGBT travellers should weigh this carefully. Homicide and conflict both rank 163rd, in the bottom twenty, and worse again, freedom is close to absent, placed 176th. The least bad measure is the roads, which are hazardous, at 156th, and women's safety is extremely poor, placed 173rd.
Homicide
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.
South Sudan: 16.5
Ranked 18th in the world for the highest homicide rate.
Why this rank?
Sixteen and a half killings per 100,000 people a year is well past the WHO's epidemic line of ten, where the deadliest countries start.
Is it safe to visit?
High even on paper — nearly three times the world average — and it's the conflict that sets the risk. The Conflict score is what matters here.
Road Fatalities
Road-traffic deaths per 100,000 people per year — lower is better.
South Sudan: 23.3
Ranked 25th in the world for the deadliest roads.
Why this rank?
Twenty-three deaths per 100,000 people a year is well above the world average of fifteen but short of double it.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. Half as high again as the world average.
Conflict
Conflict deaths inside the country in the last twelve months, as recorded by the Uppsala conflict database, civilians killed on purpose, and any UN sanctions or court order over a war. The worst of those sets the colour. Lower is better.
South Sudan: 4.19
Ranked 18th most conflict-affected country in the world.
Why this rank?
UN Security Council sanctions over its conflict put South Sudan in the dark red. 313 people died in fighting inside the country in the year to July 2026, 48 of them civilians killed on purpose.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. The army bombed villages in Jonglei this year and fighting can flare in Upper Nile and Unity. Juba is tense but not a front line.
Freedom
Six freedoms rated 0–4 by Freedom House — protest, speech, press, religion, movement and due process. The weakest rating sets the colour, and the total places the country inside it — higher is better.
South Sudan: 0.20
Ranked 5th least free country in the world.
Why this rank?
In South Sudan due process and movement are rated 0, meaning absent, so the courts offer no protection and movement is controlled. Total 2 of 24.
Is it safe to visit?
Elections delayed since the 2018 peace deal, insecurity persisting, and press and civil society restricted. Courts offer no protection and movement is unsafe, which reaches a visitor as much as anyone.
LGBT Rights
LGBT equality in law and daily life — higher is better.
South Sudan: Illegal
Ranked 59th least equal in the world for LGBT people.
Why this rank?
Same-sex acts carry up to fourteen years under the penal code. Any criminal law is red.
Is it safe to visit?
Not safe. War, displacement and deep conservatism leave no space at all, and the law is barely the biggest danger.
Women's Safety
Women's safety — feeling safe out at night, political violence against women, a fair hearing in court, and how normal violence at home is, with the night figure setting a floor on the colour — higher is better.
South Sudan: 3.31
Ranked 8th least safe country in the world for women.
Why this rank?
Attacks on women were recorded throughout 2024, the courts rate poorly, and partner violence in the past year is 27 percent.
Is it safe to visit?
For a woman travelling alone, South Sudan is high risk.